Scarlet fever???

[sb34]

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Hi sb34 - I had this at university and your ds' symptoms sound familiar. I thought I had flu, and felt very run-down and sorry for myself until the spots appeared. After that, I looked hellish but felt much better! Penicillin sorted it out in about a week. I would warn you that it did leave me feeling very tired afterwards though, as with glandular fever.

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Hi

My 5 yo dd had scarlet fever at the end of last year and it was actually picked up by the school. It normally starts with a sore throat. My dd had bright red cheeks but the rest of her face was quite pale, particularly around her mouth. Her face also appeared quite swollen.

She also had a rash - this is normally worse in the area covered by a vest and in the backs of the knees, under arms and elbows etc.

It was treated with antibiotics and there were no complications. In the days before antibiotics, it was obviously quite serious but your son should be fine.

HTH

AngieL's post has just reminded me how it gave me a fat swollen nose for a few days! After a week in sick bay, I travelled back home by train to recover and had the luxury of a whole row of seats to myself - nobody fancied sitting next to pale, scaley (but comfortable) old me...

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Our ds almost 5 has also just had scarlet fever and it started in just the way you describe. apparently it is now uncommon in GB but seems endemic here (CH) and he also caught it at school.

We were advised that he would not be contagious after just 24 hours of antibiotics, but did delay our departure for ski holiday (fortunately we were driving), especially as he also had an ear infection, a further 24 hours to be safe. By this time he was fine in himself and the most unsightly reddened patches around his nose and mouth disappeared within a few days so I would take him out. Do keep applying a good moisturiser though as this seemed to work well on our ds' sensitive skin.

Incidently our dd (almost 18 months) has not contracted it from her brother and is now beyond the incubation period, so our doctor's advice that she would probably avoid it was correct.

hope this helps

LizS

Hope ds is feeling better sb34. Scarlet fever used to be serious (if you've read the turn of the century boarding school books ykwim) but for some reason is got a lot less nasty naturally. Even without antibiotics it's apparently nowhere near as bad as it used to be. Hope you got out over the weekend.

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